(Photos are from various different trips to Llanbedr, hence differing weather conditions)
The common destination in Wales seems to be Caernarfon, though this hasn’t appealed hugely since the only option for food seems to be the cafe at the airport (I tend to avoid airport cafes) and it’s basically a taxi ride into town, which complicates things somewhat.
Therefore I decided to visit Llanbedr earlier this year, and have been back another 3 times. It’s a good distance, about a 1h40 flight from Shoreham, and a very easy VFR trip. Once past Brize, there is no airspace to speak of and the scenery is fantastic. It’s about a 10 minute walk to the very picturesque town, where there are a couple of pubs and a cafe. The cafe closes by about 11am so you’ll need to get there early for breakfast, and if you fancy lunch you’ll need to check that the pub is open. I’ve been caught out by that before and ended up buying an inedible sausage roll from the single shop in the town. There’s also a cafe at the airport but I’ve never seen it open, weekend nor weekdays. Be aware however that the toilets at the airfield are best avoided.
Llanbedr is an ex-RAF airfield with two massive hangars, one of which is empty and seems to be used for events, and the other housing a few based aircraft. It hasn’t been a RAF base for some time, but all 3 runways are open, with two of them being 1300m and the main one being 2300m.
PPR is automatic and through the Fly Snowdonia website. This is fair enough, because the airfield is unmanned and regularly hosts events on the runways. One one occasion they were doing radar testing which closed the two smaller runways.
Weather in north Wales is often awful, and it’s rarely suitable weather to visit. On the rare occasion that Wales is CAVOK and low wind, it seems rude to not visit.
When visiting from the south east, scenery starts becoming interesting towards Kemble and the Cotswolds.
I prefer to visit on weekends with calm weather, as this allows some low level fun. I have yet to fly the whole Mach Loop, though by flying the second half of it in the opposite direction to normal, going west past Machynlleth, one can descend continuously towards the sea instead of flying up a valley towards rising terrain. Take a right at the coast and it’s a nice low level run up to Llanbedr.
Descending into the valley, about to take a left into the southern part of the loop.
A bit higher than normal on this occasion due to cloud :)
Take a right here and follow the coast to the airfield.
I’ve neglected to take any photos of the airfield unfortunately, so here’s one from the internet:
There are some very scenic walks you can do from the town, and I haven’t ventured more than a mile or two but this view down rwy 23 is only a short walk.
The airfield itself is typically deserted, and the radio has never been manned during my visits so it’s always been blind calls. There was one exception whereby an aircraft in the local area was carrying out some kind of radar testing, and was acting as a makeshift A/G station relaying wind and traffic info to incoming aircraft. I guess they were pretty bored :)
Self serve avgas is available with card payment.
There is an FI based there at the Snowdonia Flight School, and he will lend you his Smart car for a modest fee. There is a jet (?) powered homebuilt in one of the hangars waiting for someone brave enough to fly it.
RobertL18C wrote
There is a jet (?) powered homebuilt in one of the hangars
Definitely a jet: I checked at the back 🤓
Llanbedr is very nice. I can’t compete with 3 trips, but will be back 😀
I read somewhere that one is allowed to camp on the airfield. I can’t remember where I read this so I need to confirm it, but if this is the case then I think it would be a fun destination for a summer fly in.
Definitely make a good summer fly-in destination. I’ve been (only once) and think I put up a similar trip report, but I’ll be back at some point. Best make use of places like this before they decay and the minimal maintenance model no longer works – the RAF may have left us three good runways but we are limited to the remaining life of those surfaces.
What isn’t so apparent in the photo above is the way the ground drops away on the south side of the field. It’s a very shallow slope but the sheer distance means that at the threshold of 35 (the long runway) it appears hump-backed and you can’t see more than halfway down.
Even at the 33 threshold you can’t see past the intersection if I remember rightly. What I certainly recall is needing a couple of very clear radio exchanges with another aircraft that was taxiing out before beginning my take off on 33, so it must have been out of sight.
Fantastic place though, much better than Caernarfon. There is a campsite relatively close by, and one could probably wild-camp in the extensive sand dunes. Not heard anything about camping on the airfield, though the attitude of the place is pretty relaxed so if I were a betting man I’d say they wouldn’t object.
Looks really great. Never been there, for some reason…
The tarmac should be good for 30-40 years without significant repairs. When did the RAF leave?
There is a campsite relatively close by, and one could probably wild-camp in the extensive sand dunes.
@Graham is too polite to mention that camping in the sand dunes puts you in contact with wild fauna…
… from the adjacent nudist beach :)
The tarmac should be good for 30-40 years without significant repairs. When did the RAF leave?
Wikipedia says October 2004, reopening in May 2014 for GA activity with prior permission.
